Dade City, FL Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

5 of the Land Development Regulations sets the material rules for fences and walls. Subsection (A) limits fences generally to customary materials: solid wood, masonry, stone, or decorative metal, and specifies that where a particular material is required for a specific type of screening or buffer, every other material is prohibited for that use. Subsection (B) is the barbed wire and electric fence rule: barbed wire fences and above-ground electrified fences are prohibited in all zone districts, with a single carve-out for the agricultural district when the fence is used to contain livestock.

Underground electric fences designed to control domestic animals, the kind used for pet containment, remain permitted everywhere because they are not above-ground electrified fencing. Subsection (C) targets improvised and salvage fencing: fences or walls built from debris, junk, rolled plastic, sheet metal, plywood, or other waste materials are prohibited in every zone district, with one exception for materials that have been recycled and reprocessed into building products that are marketed to the general public and resemble new building materials, so a genuine engineered composite product is not swept in even if its raw input was recycled.

1, meaning the same permit process (site plan, subdivision, planned development, or building permit) that governs fence height also governs the materials used. 2(K), which bars chain link, barbed wire, stock wire, hog wire, and chicken wire from qualifying as a screening fence.